Most lawyers, irrespective of their specialties, must negotiate. This course
aims to improve both your understanding of negotiation and your effectiveness as
a negotiator. Drawing on work from a variety of research perspectives, the
readings will provide frameworks for understanding negotiation. Within class,
you will spend a significant amount of time in simulated negotiation role plays.
Homework will typically consist of preparing for the next class’s negotiation,
assigned readings, and (roughly every other week) writing a journal entry. There
will be one required paper, but no final exam. Throughout, emphasis will be
placed on developing awareness of how one can improve as a negotiator and on
helping others improve as negotiators. While there is a fair bit of work, most
previous students have found the course to be enjoyable and rewarding.

All should be available at the law school bookstore and have also been placed
on reserve at the library. I strongly recommend buying BW and GTY. The other
readings for the course indicated in this syllabus have been put on reserve at
the law library. Most are excerpts from journal articles or books.

2. Simulated Negotiation Exercises. At the end of most classes, I will
distribute simulated negotiation role play exercises for the following class,
with different roles for different people. Though the exercises will be
distributed in class, they are copyrighted, and you must purchase a card from
the law school bookstore to cover their cost. Before receiving the
materials, you will have to present this card in class. When you receive role
play materials, please do not share confidential instructions with students
having other roles.

III. Course Requirements

1. Attendance & Preparation. Your attendance and preparation are
critical in this course. In the majority of classes, you will be paired to
negotiate with another student. Hence, if you are absent, your absence will
preclude not only your participation that day, but also that of your partner.
The same applies to preparation. If you come to class unprepared, not only will
you lose out, but so will your partner(s) for that day. If you do not expect to
be able to attend class consistently and prepared, you should not take this
course.

2. Effort. Learning to be a better negotiator is not something that
can be "done to" you. You must work at it yourself. While others can
offer you advice and ideas to think about, what you learn from this course in
large part will depend upon your effort. The more you put in, the more you will
get out.

3. Helpfulness to Your Fellow Students. Often the best person to give
you advice on how to be a better negotiator is the person with whom you have
just negotiated. Hence, I ask that you give feedback to one another and assist
one another in learning as constructively as you can. The more you help one
another in learning, the richer your experiences will be.

4. A Willingness to Experiment. As far as I know, there is no one
right way to negotiate. Rather there are different approaches and styles which
are sometimes more effective and sometimes less effective. My goal in this
course is not to teach you a particular style of negotiation, but rather to give
you the opportunity to experiment, expand your negotiation repertoire, and find
ways that work for you.

5. Participation. My general educational philosophy is that dialogue
is one of the best vehicles for learning. This is a discussion course, and I
hope that everyone (myself included) will learn by sharing ideas together. Also,
if you have creative ideas about how we can explore the materials in interesting
and fun ways, please let me know. I welcome your suggestions.

6. Written Requirements.

A. Journals. You are required to write a six short journal entries
over the course of the semester reflecting upon your negotiations during that
week, or, should you be so inclined, on some other negotiation-related topic.
These entries should be about 2-3 pages. A further description will be
provided in "A Note About Journals." Entries for a given week are
due at my office by noon on the following Monday. Also, at the end of the
course, you are required to submit one longer, approximately 5-page final
journal entry in which you reflect upon both your experience in the course as
a whole.

B. Research Paper. At the end of the course, you must also submit an
8- to 10-page paper analyzing a topic of your choice related to negotiation.
While you are expected to do some independent research, your paper will be
judged principally on the quality of your analysis. I will discuss the details
of this as the course progresses.

IV. Grading

Grading will be based upon your in-class performance (1/3), journal entries
(1/3), and research paper (1/3). Your grade will not be based upon how the
outcomes of your negotiation simulations compare to those of other students, but
will rather be based upon what you learn in the course, as demonstrated in your
writing and in-class performance. There will be no final exam.

Copyright 2003 Jonathan R. Cohen. Teachers are free to copy these materials
for educational use in their courses only, provided that appropriate
acknowledgment of the author is made. For permission to use these materials for
any other purpose, contact the author.